Search

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Terror Train

A group of college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong several years prior, are menaced by a masked killer as they throw a New Year’s Eve costume party on-board a train.

The early Eighties is now regarded as the Golden Age of the American slasher film. From 1978 to about 1985, cinemas were saturated with gory flicks featuring masked psychos stalking nubile teenagers in lonely locations, gruesomely killing them off one by one. The popularity of these movies was ignited by John Carpenter’s Halloween, and their rigid template was confirmed by Friday the 13th. Each successive title layered on the violence, gore and nudity, neglecting to realise that what made Carpenter’s film so effective was its use of suspense and the anticipation of violence.

Terror Train was one of the first slashers to cash in on Halloween’s success. It epitomises the sub-genre, sticking to its conventions as tightly as Jamie Lee Curtis clinging to a knife for dear life. Everything associated with the sub-genre is present and correct. A masked killer avenging a past ‘misdeed’. Check. A group of teens in an isolated location. Check. Ineffective authority/adult figures. Check. Teens indulging in drugs/alcohol/premarital sex. Check. Characters splitting up to look for other characters/investigate strange noises. Check. Knives and other sharp (phallic) implements as murder weapons (killers in slashers prefer the thrill of the chase and the intimacy of killing victims up close and personal with a knife). Check. Jamie Lee Curtis as the chaste heroine, or to use slasher terminology; Final Girl. Check, check, check.

Despite its unwavering adherence to convention, Terror Train really benefits from taut direction by Spottiswoode, who wrings every drop of menace and suspense from the confined space of the singular location. With its long, dark, shadowy corridors, there’s nowhere for the imperilled teens to run and hide as they’re picked off one by one aboard the increasingly creepy, claustrophobic train. The isolation of the setting is perfectly invoked by shots of the train hurtling through the icy night, its shrill whistle sounding like a petrified scream. A symphonic score and moody cinematography lend it an old fashioned feel and enhance the spooky atmosphere, and there’s even a little social commentary evident in the various lamentations by certain characters on the demise of rail travel. As the ageing conductor Carne, Western movie veteran Ben Johnson brings a certain gravitas and dignity to his role. Equally sympathetic is Jamie Lee Curtis as Alana, a smart and resourceful teen who constantly despairs at the endless hijinks of her friends. Like most slashers, Terror Train’s depiction of the American frat/sorority lifestyle isn’t especially sympathetic.

While it may boast atmosphere and tension by the bucket load, Terror Train is also riddled with plot holes. Just how does the killer move around on the train when logic dictates he can only go backwards or forwards? Perhaps the various costumes - which in themselves are effectively creepy - enable him to move around undetected, or perhaps, as one immensely eerie shot indicates, he uses the exterior and the roof of the train. Terror Train also suffers a little in the pacing department. At times it’s rather uneven, and proceedings are especially bogged down during the scenes with a smarmy David Copperfield as a magician charged with entertaining the revellers. Once the bodies begin to pile up though, events gradually build to a satisfyingly suspenseful climax which pits Curtis against the sadistic, axe-wielding killer dressed as a gnarled old monk.

With its inspired setting, Terror Train just about manages to set itself apart from the glut of early Eighties slasher movies, but only just. It’s still a hugely enjoyable thrill-ride though, particularly for fans of the subgenre; and personally speaking, it's one of my favourite slashers. All aboard!

Thanks Doc. I watched this for the first time around 2004/5 and it has been one of my favourite slashers ever since. Terrific use of location, creepy masks and a young Jamie Lee Curtis. What's not to love!? Hope you're well. :)

Popular posts from this blog

What if someone had discovered the knives used by Jack the Ripper? What if those cruelly glinting blades then went missing? And what if the Ripper came back into our world to once again mutilate and massacre? These are the tantalising questions that form the premise of atmospheric independent horror Razors, the first in a new series of forthcoming films set to explore the bloody exploits of one of the world’s most mysterious serial killers. It tells of enigmatic film professor Robert Wise (Thomas Thoroe) who gathers a group of young screenwriters at a sinister Victorian warehouse in the heart of London to work on the ultimate horror film. Amongst the assembled group is troubled screenwriter Ruth (Kelby Keenan) who believes she has discovered the actual knives used by Jack the Ripper. When the knives go missing and it appears the spirit of the Ripper roams free, the young screenwriters must unlock the building’s dark secrets and unravel mysteries …

Published just in time for readers to enjoy through the ever-darkening nights of October, SelfMadeHero’s latest offering is a second volume of graphic adaptations of the tales of MR James: a medievalist scholar and provost of King’s College, Cambridge, who is remembered today as the finest purveyor of ghost stories in the English language.

Adapted by Leah Moore and John Reppion, and featuring the illustrations of Meghan Hetrick, Abigail Larson, Al Davison and George Kambadais, the tales adapted for this volume include some of his best known work.

Happy 20th Birthday, Scream! I can't believe you've grown up so fast. I know it’s now 2017 and you turned 20 last year, but you weren’t released in the UK until 1997 so technically it was twenty years ago this year that I saw you. Technicalities aside, I couldn’t let the occasion go by without writing a little something about you on here. I remember my dad taking me to see you at the cinema because you were rated 18 and I was only 16. I wanted so badly to see you though. I was shocked and intrigued by your teaser campaign on TV, and you starred some people who were in things I loved as a 16-year-old (Friends! Party of Five! Boys on the Side!). You were my first experience of watching a horror film in a cinema with a real live cinema audience (they were quite annoying) and I can still remember the excitement and anticipation. I was equal parts irked and enthralled when the audience reacted to you in such a vocal way. They screamed a lot. I thought you were the greatest thing e…